Ralph Sadleir School

Overview

The report states that the school’s overall effectiveness, quality of education, behaviour, personal development, and leadership are all ‘Requires improvement’. It notes that recent leadership changes have brought greater consistency, with behaviour improving and suspension numbers falling significantly, though expectations are not yet consistently high.

Strengths

• Safeguarding arrangements are ‘effective’, with pupils feeling safe and trusting adults to act on concerns.
• Provision for pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) is ‘effective’, with clear adaptations and regular staff training.
• There is a ‘systematic and rapid approach’ to identifying and supporting pupils who struggle to read, building confidence and fluency.
• Most pupils are happy, attend regularly, and feel safe, with bullying described as ‘rare’.
• Governors have a ‘clear understanding’ of what is required to bring about change, and staff are proud of the evidence of improvement.

Areas to improve

• The behaviour policy is not applied consistently or rigorously by all staff, leading to low-level disruption and a lack of respect in some lessons.
• Curriculum delivery in some subjects lacks ambition and consistency, resulting in variable work quality and limited depth of learning.
• Assessment is not effective in some subjects, with limited feedback and few checks on whether pupils have addressed gaps in their knowledge.
• Staff have not received sufficient professional development to deliver the curriculum effectively and adapt teaching to meet all pupils’ needs.

Safeguarding

The report confirms that ‘the arrangements for safeguarding are effective’.